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Mighty Joe Young

Ernest B Schoedsack(1949)

Review

Our Score

by Tom Hutchinson

As an emasculated King Kong, this variation on the monster theme is, nevertheless, entertaining enough. Terry Moore is persuaded to bring her enormous pet gorilla from Africa to America to become part of a nightclub act which includes, in superlatively kitsch style, her playing Beautiful Dreamer while being held aloft by the gorilla. Directed by Ernest B Schoedsack, who co-directed King Kong, with special effects by King Kong originator Willis O'Brien and, among others, Ray Harryhausen, it's excruciatingly schmaltzy but keeps its innocence intact, though with a commercial edge.

Summary

A woman living in the African jungle with a 10ft-tall gorilla sells the giant ape to a nightclub entrepreneur. She enjoys a luxurious life in New York, but realises her pet is unhappy and asks to return home - but it is too late, as the club's drunken clientele tease the animal, driving it into a destructive rampage. Adventure, with Terry Moore and Robert Armstrong.